What your 'oil money' has bought them.

Here's another sight in Dubai. A relatively new tourist destination, Dubai has gained in popularity in the last 7 years. It is esentially a desert city with superb infrastructure, liberal policies and excellent tourist amenities. Just 5 hrs from Europe and 3 hrs from most parts of Asia, Dubai makes a great short break for Shopping, Partying, Sunbathing, Fine Dining, Sporting Events and even a few Sinful Pleasures. It is a city of superlatives. For the fastest, biggest, tallest, largest and highest, Dubai is the destination. This is called Wild Wadi and of course, this is where the gas/oil money is going. A million dollars is nothing for these people. If you want to see more pictures I have put on here, please click on 'Dubai' below.

I notice that there are people from Dubai checking out this blog. Any of you want to give us some insight to your unique place. Thank you...dave Just click 'comments'

Back to Hayward

Arrived back home in Hayward last night after the long, 9 hour drive from Roseburg. Noticed gas prices..... Ashland (filled up) at $4.29 per gallon; drove by Anderson, CA and they had the lowest price I've seen in awhile...$4.09 per gallon and of course, I put in just enough to make it home. In Hayward, the price had dropped to $4.19 from $4.35 on July 17, before we left.

So, next up for us will be the Hayward Zucchini Festival which is held at Kennedy Park on Hesperian Blvd. Has gone downhill over the years, as more of a 'beer-guzzling, music listening' crowd has attended.

Will be in Casa de Fruta in Hollister for Labor Day Weekend, doing one of Mike Knapp's Craft Fairs. Probably the Pittsburg Seafood Festival after that and then the Castro Valley Fall Festival.

Loading up the motor home was not easy on Monday morning, since a number of vendors had not taken their things down. We took everything down and placed it alongside the curb and then brought the motor home over and parked alongside our space as close as possible. So happy to get out of Fat City.

Hayward Zucchini Festival

Hayward, CA. Come on down to the Hayward Zucchini Festival during the weekend of August 16-17. Check out our booth located along the sidewalk next to the kid's play area. We are DandL CREATIONS and we sell shoulder/sling bags, Betty Boop T-shirts, wrap-around skirts, hand-made shell necklaces, tote bags, fanny packs and a whole lot more.

Vendors Comments

Hi Vendors. Thank you for visiting this blog. I would appreciate if some of you could comment on events you have done I would like to hear about it. How have your shows gone? There's events all over the place. Sales up? Sales down? Buying crowds? I would like to also post your comments on my Starving Vendors website. If your show was bad, tell me why. Ditto for the good. Just input your comment at the end of this entry. Thank you.

Douglas County Fair

AUGUST 5, 2008. Roseburg, OR. Haven't been able to do updates. My Internet connection in Redmond was terrible and over here at the Douglas County Fair are not too good either. I can only get on line in my booth.

This fair is much smaller than Deschutes, which turned out to be pretty bad. It's opening day here and temps are supposed to be in the high 80's.

Please check out http://www.starvingvendors.com/ for info and stories on Deschutes and our travels

Very slow day with about 90 percent kids. A bit warm and nobody spending money; only on drinks, smoothies, shave ice, etc. One long ass day even though it started at noon. There was a stage about 100 feet in front of us that played loud music throughout the night and vendors over here had a very rough time communicating with customers and having to live through this.

Highlight of the day: 5:37 Pig escapes from building; runs past my booth
5:38 Pig runs into our booth; sniffs my left knee; sticks his snout into the remains of my baked potato. A guy grabs his ear and turns him around; pig says 'snort, snort,' and leaves the booth without buying anything,

Wednesday, August 6. Opened at 11:00. Went to the office to voice my two cents worth on the extremely pumped up loud music. Can't to the rest of the week like this. While I was talking to the manager, I mentioned that it must have been kid's day yesterday. However, she informed me that it was actually Senior Citizen's Day. Could have fooled me. Zillions of kids all over the place.

Was hoping for a much better day today, but this is the 2nd day of the fair, always the slowest day. Temps are supposed to be up around 94 degrees again today. At least we are on the cool side of things until this afternoon. Can hear them playing BINGO about 75 feet away...B5....I18.... N33. They played all day yesterday and they are at it again,

Thursday, August 7. Somewhat cloudy with temps in the mid-80's today. Slow sales. I really wonder if there is something in the water here..... people act somewhat weird. Big Bingo game going on....50 cents per card. Top prize is $5.00. This goes on all day long.

ONE OF THE BIGGEST SUCK ASS COUNTY FAIRS OF ALL TIME!!! This is really, totally bad. Something in the drinking water? These people look like zombies walking around.

Friday, August 8. Two days left. Today should be the second best day of the fair. Need a good crowd though. So far, it's been a huge social gathering for kids and an Eat-a-thon for the parents. Weather was refreshingly cool this AM, but the sun is poking through and will warm things up to the mid-80's.

Saturday, August 9. Opened at 11:00. Not many people walking around. Would tend to have a bigger crowd on the last day. Workers received their pay; kids got paid for their pigs. Just can't figure this thing out. Weather is nice and cloudy today keeping temps down. Sales still slow throughout the day. SOS. Very bad event. Never again.

Deschutes County Fair - Daily Log

JULY 29. Continued to set up on Monday morning. I think I like the weather out on the coast better. Only in the 80's here, but too hot. Spent the night in their new RV Park. Okay, but somewhat generic and in twenty years the newly planted trees will provide shade. Kind of hot, being out there in the open. Don't know if we have any other options on this one. Will do some things around town.....what town? Where's it at? Thank gosh I have my GPS..... it helps a lot.

JULY 30. First day of fair. I had been told by the fair, that it was a 'short walk' from the RV Park to our space. Bull crap. Must have been about a mile...one heck of a long walk. Had difficulties finding our space... a bit different when you come in through another gate and are walking. Very very slow day. It looks like we got totally screwed on the location of our booth. We are in the last #($#$ing row, away from the main traffic flow. %*$(#&($# ed. Weather was somewhat okay.

Deschutes County Fair

JULY 28. REDMOND, OR. We left a fog-covered Winchester Bay this morning around 7:00, taking Highway 101 up to Reedsport. Since it was foggy, we decided to leave the coast behind instead of heading up to Florence. We took Highway 38 from Reedsport over to Highway 5 on a seemingly endless journey, zig zagging through the forests, etc. A rather scenic drive, one which I have never taken before. Always crossed over at other locations.

We reached Highway 5 and proceded North up to Eugene. We took Highway 126 east. After a short distance, I ran into construction with many trucks, etc. Somehow I had veered off of the Highway and was traveling down another road, where I had to turn around and re-trace my tracks over to Main St. where I turned right and continued. No signs on that Highway and I wasn't really too sure if I was going the right way. So, I popped up my GPS and set it for Redmond and saw that this was indeed Highway 126 and I was 100 miles from Redmond.

The drive was quite scenic, with snow-covered mountains to our right. We drove through the touristy town of Sisters, which had some people strolling around.

As we approached Redmond, my GPS began directing me off the Highway and zig-zagged our way through back roads to Highway 97 and then continued to the Fairgrounds exit 6 miles away. Not too sure if I could have found this place without my GPS.

After driving around the perimeter of the fairgrounds, I was having difficulties finding the 'office.' I walked over to the Administration Office and they pointed me over the office for vendor check ins. There I picked up my passes and my space number and was given directions.

We drove through the North Gate and attempted to find our space. We checked several areas and then I was finally able to locate one of the people who could help me. She showed me my space #222. So, I pulled the motor home and we unloaded all our things, intent on finishing tomorrow morning. The location really does not look good at all. We are not located on one of the many main aisles. We are just across from the pig area. Oh gosh.....I hope this doesn't turn out to be a doozy.

Cowrie Shell Chokers

Are you interested in beautiful hand-made cowrie shell chokers? Please visit our website to see our huge selection. Very easy to order. Safe and secure. Priced from $9.95.

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Deschutes County Fair

July 27. WINCHESTER BAY, OR --Okay people..... here we come. A number of vendors have departed the Coos County Fair in Myrtle Point are are heading up to Redmond for the Deschutes County Fair.

Coos County ended last night and attendance was fair. We packed up our merchandise... wrap skirts, shoulder bags, shell necklaces and a whole lot more and left everything in our booth overnight. We loaded up our motor home with our things around 6:45AM and after saying good bye to fellow vendors, we left there around 10:15 and headed across to Coos Bay, where we gassed up ($4.23) and picked up a couple weeks groceries at Safeway. Don't you people have stores like Food Maxx or Costless? I believe that you do have COSTCO, but I don't need 12 boxes of corn flakes, 8 jars of coffee, 64 rolls of toilet paper. I'm exagerrating if you believe I am serious about COSTCO.

We do our grocery shopping at Food Maxx back home in Hayward and the prices have to be at least 30 percent less. We try to stay away from those higher priced wallet-busting chains like Luckys, Safeway, etc.

After picking up our groceries, we headed to a gas station and filled up and began our trek northward on Highway 101, which has been one of my favorite drives. Great scenery, very relaxing drive.

I had the address (sort of) of an RV dump site in Lakeside, but I didn't find it. We headed up to Winchester Bay again and dumped our holding tanks and then chose a spot to park for the night and relax the rest of the day away. Tomorrow morning, we'll head over to Highway 5 and Eugene and take Highway 126 to Redmond, an area where I have never been to.

Can't quite decided where to cross over at...Reedsport or Florence. I can save some time by crossing at Reedsport since part of the trip will then be taken on Highway 5. I might try to get to Redmond, where I can pick up my paperwork for the fair and maybe begin unloading and setting up our booth. Don't know what we'll do...still trying to recover from this morning's loading of the motor home which wasn't easy.

Later this week, the Winchester Bay Dunesfest http://www.dunefest.com/ will kick off. Looks like a really nice event for ATV's, etc. This is held yearly and the parking lots here are beginning to fill up with huge motor homes and gigantic trailers containing dune-ware. Check it out if you are on the coast. However, if you are out on Highway 5 near Eugene, come on over to the Dechutes County Fair in Redmond and check us out...... DandL CREATIONS

Pink Hat Hoodlums strike Coos County Fair

JULY 25. MYRTLE POINT, OR. Last night a bunch of hoodlums calling themselves "The Pink Hat" gang robbed a number of vendors after the fair closed down and intimidated and threatened several other people and there was some outright vanndalism. Supposedly a group called the Pink Hats has been been frequenting this event and were free to road at will since there was inadequate security at that time and poor lighting.

Where was the security force at? I have no idea. One of the vandals was caught with drugs on him and supposedly he was the only one taken in, because he was on parole. This whole thing is one ugly mess. The Fair promises to have added security next year, along with spotlights, but I am afraid that the vendors will have to foot the bill with increased booth fees.

I never knew that Myrtle Point had these kind of problems.

Coos County Fair Daily Log

For info on the fair...entertainment, schedule, visit this website: http://www.co.coos.or.us/coosfair/entertainment.htm

Weather report: http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/USOR0238?from=search_10day

Tuesday, July 22. Senior Citizen's Day. Large amount of kids in carnival area. Good sales until 3:00. Night crowd mostly stood around socializing. Lots of $1.00 sales in evening. No sun all day; breezy at times. Cooler in the evening.

Wednesday, July 23. Weather prediction. High 69 Low 48. Partly cloudy. It was sunny all day long with occasional winds. Mostly kids today, but more adults than on Tuesday evening. However, sales were slow and many booths closed at 10:00.

Thursday, July 24. Sunny during the day, cloudy and cool in the evening. Breezy occasionally. Mostly penniless kids (after paying for rides) around. Crowds less than Wednesday. No real drawing card. Rodeo starts on Friday, which should bring people in. But will they bring their money? Vendors quite friendly and need support.

Friday, July 25. Great weather. Little wind and sunny. Where's Waldo? Rodeo has started but sales are slow for everbody....slow, slow, slow until around 7:00PM.

Saturday, July 25. Good pre-11:00 sales was a good indicator that people were going to out buying. Best weather day of the fair. Tailed off during the afternoon, but picked up after 6:00PM. Packed up our stuff at 11:00PM and covered up the canopy and left it overight, return Sunday morning to load up and head on out. They had the finals of their Rodeo Saturday evening, which drew a decent crowd.

Saturday, July 26 Last day of event. Good buying crowd in the morning and early afternoon. A bit warm and slightly breezy. Most of the vendors, etc., will be packing their stuff and leaving tonight, but we'll just pack our stuff and load up in the early morning and head on up the coast, taking a couple days to reach Redmond. The vendors will mostly be heading off to one of three different county fairs.....Blanton County Fair in Corvallis (we were there last year); the Del Norte County Fair in Crescent City, CA and Deschutes, where several of us will be headed. I expect to see a lot of our fellow vendors at the Douglas County Fair in Roseburg in two weeks.

Be sure to check out the beautifully decorated booth, Coral Reef Smoothies for a cool, refreshing drink or try a slice or two of great-tasting pepperoni pizza next to Marcella' s Thai Food, which is pretty good also. Should be constant lines of 30 people waiting later on in the week. And of course, come on over and check us out. We are on the right hand side about 8 booths down next to the trailer selling cell phone cases. We sell shoulder (sling) bags, wrap skirts, sarongs, shell necklaces and a lot more.

NOTE: There is no major entertainment at this fair; the main attraction is the Rodeo

Myrtle Point - Coos County Fair

July 21 Arrived here this morning around 8:00 and set up our canopies. Weather was excellent...temps in the 70's, sunny, and hardly any wind....thank gosh. We had four days of very strong winds down in Winchester Bay which was quite bad. This fair starts tomorrow, July 22 and runs through Saturday, July 26. Come on down and check things out.